1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lawn mower having a mowing blade rotatably provided in the lower side of a machine body, a duct for discharging mowed grass which is formed in the upper side, and a mowed grass catcher bag provided on the rear side of the duct for collecting the mowed grass.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a lawn mower of this type, an engine is mounted on the machine body, the mowing blade is rotatably driven by the engine, and grass mowed by the mowing blade is discharged through the mowed grass discharge duct extending toward the rear of the machine body into the mowed grass catcher bag mounted on the rear side of the duct. The lawn mower of this type moves on wheels which are provided in the machine body and are connected to the engine through a driving device including a transmission and clutch.
A conventional lawn mower of this type, however, has the following problems. If the machine is carelessly operated when the bag is not mounted onto a mowed grass discharge port formed at the outlet end of the duct, there is the danger that mowed grass and gravel or the like mixed therewith may be discharged directly from the exposed discharge port to the outside, or someone might carelessly put their hand in the discharge port. In order to prevent this danger, a door for closing the discharge port has conventionally been provided. However, the generally-known arrangement of the door is such that, when the bag is to be mounted on mounting members of the discharge port, the operator has to open the door with one hand while holding the bag in the other before he can fit the bag onto the port. In addition, because the dimensions of the discharge port of the duct are limited and hence are not large relative to the whole structure of the mowed grass discharge section of the machine, the opening from which the mowed grass caught in the bag is discharged cannot be made large.